Farbkomposition mit Rund- und Ovalformen 1933

Adolf Hölzel made this painting, Farbkomposition mit Rund- und Ovalformen, with soft pastels on paper. Look at the way that these colors push against each other: purples, blues, yellows, reds, greens and browns, dots and dashes which swarm over a warm ground like schools of tropical fish. I imagine Hölzel choosing each pastel one by one and laying them down on the page, not quite touching, not quite separate, each mark a note in a visual symphony. He's dancing close to abstraction, with the shapes almost resembling bodies, or landscapes. See that big heart shape! It brings an unexpected element of tenderness to the composition, don't you think? Hölzel would have been aware of other artists using abstraction to conjure feeling, like Kandinsky or Kupka. There's a shared desire to find new languages for painting, and what emerges is this gorgeous composition of color, rhythm, and feeling. Artists talk to each other through their paintings, even across time, and paintings allow for many meanings to be felt and understood, not just one.